Blame NFF For Super Eagles Failure At CHAN- Chief Onigbinde

Former Super Eagles technical adviser, chief Adegboye Onigbinde, has insisted that the Nigeria Football Federation, under president Amaju Pinnick must share the blame of Nigeria's early shameful exit at the ongoing 2016 African Nations Championship, CHAN in Rwanda. 

The FIFA and CAF instructor, who took the national team to the Korea/Japan world cup in 2002 added that Sunday Oliseh

shouldn't be the only one that should bear all the blame, saying the NFF are equally culpable for employing an inexperienced coach for the team.

Nigeria failed to make it out of the preliminary stage of the championship, after finishing third with four points behind Group C leaders, Tunisia and Guinea, who finished on the same point, to reach the quarters of the tournament.

Onigbinde said the NFF were wrong to have employed Oliseh as coach due to his total inexperience on the job, thinking he would be able to translate his good punditry experience into result on the pitch of play.

“It would be unfair to heap all the blame of Nigeria’s elimination from the African Nations Championship on the chief coach Sunday Oliseh alone,” Onigbinde told Goal.

“In as much as he is responsible for the good and the bad results of the team as a coach, there are some people that ought to have provided him the needed back up that I think may have failed to do so.

“There are some salient questions we need to ask here. Did the NFF do their homework well by hiring Sunday Oliseh who had never handled any national team before?

“After hiring him, did the same NFF provide him with the needed back up like a well-functioning and strong technical department that will guide him and point out any lapses of the team and proffer solutions to the team’s technical problems?

“The answers to all these questions I know you guys know.

“Until we learn to do things right and in the proper way it should be we won’t get the needed results we are craving for,” Onigbinde advised.

The former Shooting Stars of Ibadan also blamed the NFF for withholding the salary of the coach and other staff of the team, saying that he encountered same in 2002, when the then federation, under Taiwo Ogunjobi as secretary issued him a bounced cheque of two million naira.

“The same thing happened when I took the Eagles to Korea/Japan 2002 World Cup when I was promised N2 million to prepare and take the team to the World Cup then. The NFF under Taiwo Ogunjobi as the Secretary General then could not pay the money despite participating at the finals then.

“When I threatened not to lead the team to play the final group match they now brought a bank cheque in naira equivalent promising that when I get back to Nigeria after the tournament it would be paid. The funny thing is that when I got back and went to the bank, the cheque bounced. That is another story for another day. So all of us has stories to tell.”